Versatility in Cross-Cultural Variations of Personification

Literature was first structured by great figures’ literary and non-literary works that gave birth to the metaphorical conceptualization. The personalities like Dante and Rumi who developed the first social-cultural universality by using personifications – though from two different parts of the world. The power of poetry which can be created in personification is one of the different ways to bring universality of the metaphorical expressions into literature. Although personification is the important part of metaphorical poetry, very few researchers analyzed it. To this end, inspired form Kovecses (2007) classification of metaphoric expressions, it was attempted to analyze Rumi’s Masnavi Ma?navi’s (Spiritual Couplets) first (4003 verses) and second books (3822 verses) in terms of personification along with Dante’s Devine comedy including Inferno and Paradise. Chi-square test was run to find the type, the frequency and significance of the personification’s application in these two poets’ works. Findings revealed significant differences namely, nature and animate personifications in these great works. Finally, it was revealed that poetry could manifest different socio-cultural and religious bonds between different societies.Key words: Personification; Conceptualization; Metaphorical expression

Scaffolding EFL Oral Performance through Story Maps and Podcasts and Students’ Attitudes toward it

The present study sought to explore the impact of story maps and audio podcasts as scaffolds on oral proficiency of Iranian EFL learners. The quasi-experimental study was launched with 36 EFL undergraduates in three groups by adopting a counterbalanced 3  3 Latin squared design. All participants were indiscriminately, but in a specified order, exposed to the three treatment conditions of story retelling, story retelling plus story map, and story retelling plus podcast, and post-tested sequentially. The Latin square analysis of the oral assessment scale showed statistically meaningful differences under the treatment conditions for the groups. The post-hoc test also showed overachievements of the participants under the treatment conditions of story retelling plus story map and story retelling plus podcasts. The performance under podcast condition was significantly better than performances under the story map and short story conditions. The post-experiment opinion survey showed the learners’ preferences for and positive attitudes towards podcast and story map as scaffolds in developing EFL oral proficiency. The participants welcomed integration of the scaffolds into EFL speaking courses

Language Learners' Imagined Communities: Model and Questionnaire Development in the Iranian Context

This study aimed to overcome the researchers' extreme attention to essentially qualitative methods in research on language learners' imagined communities and move towards quantification in order to achieve a more tangible image of this construct. To do so, the present researchers followed three main phases. First, a hypothesized model of language learners' imagined communities with eight components was developed for the Iranian context based on the wide-ranging readings of the literature on imagined communities, consultations with experts and interviews with language learners. Second, a questionnaire was developed and validated based on the model to represent its components. Finally, the data collected through the questionnaire were fed into the model to see to what extent the model fit the data. The initial results showed poor values; however, the model was trimmed by removing one item from the questionnaire, and final statistical indices showed that the model was fit

Validation of Attributional Complexity Scale in Iranian Context and an Investigation into the Effect of Knowing Another Language on Social Perception Validation of Attributional Complexity Scale in Iranian Context and an Investigation into the Effect of K

Abstract: The present study attempted to validate Attributional Complexity Scale (ACS) in Iranian context. Fletcher et al. (1986